Three Weeks
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Taking care of a baby, a house, and a dog on your own for three weeks isn't easy. At all. Steph knows that. She just wishes that Paul maybe could have occasionally taken the trash out during that time period... But it's okay. Because Paul knows some other things they should be focusing on. Like what a llama, Vince McMahon, and an Texas oil man all have in common. - One-shot.


Paul was practically dancing around the house as he got everything ready. He hadn't taken very good care of it while Steph had been gone (although, what could she possibly be expecting, leaving him all alone in it for three weeks with a one year old baby) and was rushing to get everything in order once more.

He'd actually been pretty busy while she was gone. It had been a few months since his second quad injury, leaving him with plenty of rehabilitation to contend with. Add in his baby and the man had practically a full day, every single day, from getting the baby to and from babysitters/daycare to heading to the gym and then he had to make dinner too, something the baby could at least have a little bit of, because she was on solids. And any and all disturbances throughout the night for the baby (ranging from diaper issues to just needing confirmation that, yes, he was still around and ready to snuggle her at any and all times) went through him.

It wasn't really that great of a time. He enjoyed, of course, the concept behind it. Not having Steph around constantly, nagging him about the trash or what they were going to do for dinner or how he shouldn't let the baby stare at the television so much and had he moved at all since he got home from the gym, he should really go out for a jog or something and hey, are you listening, Paul? Are you? Because if you're not, then you can just- And stop turning up the television! You know, this is your problem. You always think you can just drown out your problems.

Direct quotes. Honestly.

Still though, without Steph there to yell all those things at him constantly, he did find himself not taking out the trash. And not thinking about dinner until it had to be made and therefore not having many options. And then he'd get home with Rora for the day, sit down to just watch a little bit of a ball game and, damn, where did the day go? It was time to put the baby to bed and himself if he was going to get up early.

So yeah, Steph and her gripes had their place in his life. It just took three weeks without them for him to remember such a thing.

It was the same with the baby. He definitely loved his daughter, would do anything for her, and the thought of getting to be completely alone with her was great. The baby had a predisposition to love Stephanie more than him (the woman did kind of carry her around for nine months and then nurse her for five more) so it was hard at times to come out as the favorite parent. Three weeks of just him and the baby would help with that.

And it did, probably. It was just...all the work that went into that. He definitely helped Steph with their daughter, constantly, but help was definitely an important word in that. They helped one another. Because it was hard, dealing with a one year old. So all by himself, Paul found many tasks that he could just pass off on Stephanie before, claiming his thigh hurt (such as late night diaper changes, cleaning the baby up when she inevitably got dirty from snack time, and especially when Aurora was cranky and just refused to take her nap) were his sole responsibility.

He kinda wished they had a nanny in those times. A full time one, rather, as they did have one that would watch Aurora for them, of course, when they were very frequently busy. But not a live-in one because that would be weird, right? They both felt like that would be weird. And Steph would probably make them get a super old one (or he would, just to avoid the drama of having a young one) and that would be okay, but still even more awkward, probably, having some old lady hanging around the house.

Paul figured that he and Aurora both were glad when her mother walked through the door that day around noon. He was still in the process of cleaning up (three weeks of trash was not easy to get rid of) while Aurora played with some of her toys in the living room, so Steph saw her first. Which was who she wanted to see first, probably, as when Paul came out of the kitchen to greet her, he hardly got a glance.

"You look so much bigger," Stephanie was cooing as she stood in the living room, holding her baby to her. At her feet sat her luggage, which Paul figured would be his duty to get put away. "You know that? Huh? Rora? I missed you." After pressing a kiss to the baby's cheek, Steph finally glanced up with a slightly self-conscious grin, staring at her husband. He'd only stood there, faithfully waiting for his turn. "Hey, Paul."

"Is that what I get now? Hey, Paul? That's all you're giving me?"

"Oh, right, because you don't say the same thing to me every time you leave."

"I wouldn't say 'Hey, Paul' to you, Steph. You're not Paul."

"Paul-"

"I missed you." He moved then to toss an arm around her shoulders, there in the living room, pulling Steph close to him. From her arms, their daughter continued to repeat her very limited vocabulary in attempts to get their attention (it typically worked) but Steph was busy staring up at her husband then.

"I missed you too. You don't even know. Both of you." Then, looking down at Aurora, Stephanie gave the girl a kiss again before saying, "I mean, I know it's silly because we talked on the phone constantly-"

"Constantly," he agreed. "I mean, you should see our phone bill. You do realize it costs more to call internationally, don't you?"

"Paul-"

"And then you would make me let you talk to the baby-"

"I missed her."

Oh, he knew. Steph would make him hold the phone up to the baby's ear and then she would talk and, really, Paul wasn't sure if Aurora recognized her mother's voice or not, but he did know that it was a complete and utter waste of time.

Then again, considering some of the other things that the woman made him do for little to no reason, that really shouldn't have shocked him.

"I know." He leaned down then, pressing a kiss to his wife's head. "I missed you. We both did."

"Did she ask for me?"

"Mmmhmm. I mean, it's not like she has a great grasp on this speaking thing, but she did say Mama a lot, if that's what you mean."

"That was her asking for me."

As her eyes were facing downwards, at the child, he allowed himself to roll his eyes.

"Sure." Paul snuggled her one more time. "I bet it was."

"Where's my dog?" She glanced up at him once more as Aurora rested against her mother's shoulder. "Outside?"

"In our bedroom," he said, even nodding towards the hallway. With Aurora being so young, Steph's dog typically was kept away from her. That meant if Aurora was out, as she had been, playing in the living room, that he either had to go have some free time outside or go lay around in one of the bedrooms. The only time he got free reign of the house was when Aurora was in bed and even then her bedroom door would be shut, keeping him out. "He-"

"Ooh, good." She slipped out of Paul's grasp then. "Because that's where I wanna go to."

"I know it's been three weeks, Steph, but to be so forward-"

"I want us all to take a nap together."

He didn't even fight his disappointment. And, when Steph saw it, she only moved to give him Aurora as well as press a kiss to his downcast lips.

"Let me go say hello to my dog, huh?" Stephanie was rushing off just like that. "Then we can sleep some."

Paul watched her rush off before looking at his daughter, who was whining after her mother.

"You know, kid," he griped a bit as he went through all the pre-nap phases with Aurora, which included being sure she didn't want a bottle as well as changing her diaper to a fresh one, "before you, three weeks would have definitely resulted in some personal time. Dog or no dog. But add baby into the equation and you just got a whole mess. You know that, Rora? You're a mess." She got a kiss to her cheek to distract her from her whines for her mother. "But a pretty mess."

After getting her all set for her nap, Paul headed to his bedroom, not shocked to find Steph literally laying on the ground with her big dog, rubbing his belly. At the sight of her husband and daughter, she only grinned, a bit embarrassed no doubt from the high pitched voice she was using to coo at the dog as they entered.

"Come on then, baby," she sighed, getting to her feet then and dragging the dog by the collar (though he was so excited she was there that he was following pretty easily) out of the room. "Here, Mama will go get you some toys to play with. Would you like that?"

It took a bit to get the mastiff settled (or, rather, Steph wanted it to take awhile as she'd missed her dog a whole bunch too), but once he was, she left him to his chew toys and a bone, heading back to her own bedroom. She found that Paul wasn't there, but Aurora was sitting in the middle of the bed, pillows placed on both her sides, keeping her from being able to crawl to the edge.

"Mmmm." Steph came to pick up one of the pillows and set it back in its place at the head of the bed before claiming its spot. "I missed you, Aurora."

The baby clapped at her name and made some mimicking noises back at her mother while Steph only pulled her close to give her a few kisses.

After, she glanced at the closed bathroom door before calling out, "Daddy? You're not sick are you?"

"No," came a grumbled response. "I'm just washing up a bit. I was all sweaty before and I know you hate when I get the sheets dirty."

"Why should that matter? I can tell you haven't changed them once since I left."

"No way you know that."

"If I didn't, then I wouldn't even truly know my husband."

"Hear that, Rora?" The bathroom door opened and Paul came out, dressed only in his boxers then, washcloth in his hand as he continued to scrub at his face and neck. "Mommy's being awfully mean to me."

"She doesn't think so." Stephanie watched as he came to climb into bed with them. "Mmmm. How's your leg, baby?"

"Are you talking to me? Or the actual baby?" Paul set the pillow in his place at the head of the bed as well before falling into it. Reaching over, he gently grabbed one of Aurora's legs and shook it, the baby making complaints at him only to be rewarded with a kiss to the cheek from him to calm her down. "I think hers are just fine."

"Yours. And I'm being serious."

"I'm fine, Steph. You know that. Remember the whole talking up a phone bill from Hell thing?" He spared her a grin. "And you know you're not concerned with me. You really want to ask if I got the dog to that vet appointment for his shots and how Aurora really was, not just me lying to you over the phone to keep you calm."

"I can worry about all three."

Paul settled on his back before reaching over to gently drag Aurora to him. She didn't like this, not even when he set her up on his chest. Because, you know, it had started; he was second to Stephanie. Again.

"Can you scoot closer, Mommy?" Paul held Aurora to his chest, despite her complaints. "So the baby can calm down."

Steph laid practically on one half of his chest while Aurora, content with her mother being so close, settled into the other. One of Steph's hand rested on the girl's cheek, which she stroked softly while Paul's laid over the one year old, keeping her securely on him.

"I can't wait until she's old enough that we don't have to kick my poor other baby out, just to have a family nap."

Oh, she thought the damn dog would be napping with them, did she? Paul tried hard not to make a face as he said, "I thought you wanted another baby, Steph? Real soon?"

"Yeah, I know, but..." She glanced up at him with a grin then. "Have you been thinking about it?"

"The dog? Yeah, I thought about him. The damn mutt kept trying to come sleep in here with me. I think he just missed you and-"

"About the baby, Paul. Have you thought anymore about...trying?"

He tried hard not to groan. "I mean, yeah, I guess. You know I don't care either way. Whatever you want."

"See, you always say that and then-"

"Don't start griping at me yet." He shut his eyes. "Please. Save it for when you see what I did to the bathroom."

"What did you do to the-"

"Well, I kinda thought it was only you that used the bathroom trashcan, so I figured I wouldn't have to take it out at all, not even once, but then it kind filled up and… And then there was the whole thing where you always go back and screw the cap on the toothpaste for me, which you haven't been around to do so there's toothpaste stains all over the counter and well… I also haven't gotten around to scrubbing to the toilet bowl since you-"

"You're not a child, you know. You could just do these things for yourself."

"Oh, babe, you should just see the kitchen-"

"Paul-"

"I'll wash those dishes. Swear. I just thought I had more time."

"You had three weeks!"

"And now I have three weeks of dishes."

"Paul-"

"Being a single parent's hard," he defended. "And just so you know, if it wasn't for your long distance phone calls, I could probably afford a maid or something, so-"

"You're so full of it."

"I'll get around to cleaning it, baby." He opened his eyes then as he felt her shift on the bed. Steph was leaning over him then, staring down into his eyes. "Promise."

"You promise, huh?" Her hand left Aurora then as it came to stroke across one of his cheeks, brushing some of that too long hair out of the way. He only smiled up at her.

"Of course. You should see the kitchen trash. I took it out. It's completely clean. I-"

"Paul, I saw the trashcans at the side of the house when I drove in. Completely overflowing." She had that no nonsense tone then. Lying wasn't something she enjoyed. "You didn't take it out until today, did you?"

He frowned at her. "I'll have you know that I did gather up the trash many times and tie up the bags...only to forget to take them out of the house. And then I forgot to carry them down to the curb last week, so that's part of the reason they're so full. But trash day is, like, tomorrow, so-"

"Oh, Paul." She leaned down then, to give him a kiss. "You're so pathetic without me."

He didn't feel offended. Only nodded.

"Horribly."

Falling back to the bed then, she reached a hand out for Aurora to grasp at with her own, as the baby was whining again about being without her mother's touch. Paul found himself far more offended and hurt by that than anything Steph was saying.

Apparently, he'd gained no ground on that favorite parent thing while Steph was gone.

"Next time," she was saying as she seemed to be attempting to drift off, not even getting out of her clothes to do so, "I'll just say I can't to Dad. Go on a three week tour. Not until Aurora's a little bit older. And you're not so...helpless."

"No, you won't."

"No?"

Shaking his head, he said, "You know you love work too much to do that. You'll talk about it, but you won't do it. Hell, you considered not going this time, but you did. You love your company."

"I love you guys more."

"Just a skosh though."

"Not true."

He let his eyes slip shut once more. "Just take a nap, Steph. We can go out to dinner tonight, maybe. If you wake up in time, I mean."

Which Paul was banking on her not doing. Until, you know, about six hours later, he was awakened to the gently shaking on his chest and Steph's soft coaxing.

"Mmmm. You're up?" came his slurred mumble as he blinked his eyes open. He panicked, after a moment, when he realized that the only thing he felt on his chest was Steph's hand, but she calmed him as he asked, "Where's-"

"In bed. Me and her already did bath time and she ate her dinner. Now she's in her crib. I think she was a bit disappointed that Daddy wasn't putting her there."

"Yeah, right." He was calming then again as Steph's hand gently stroked his chest. "She was probably overjoyed to be done with me."

"No way."

Sitting up a bit, he took in the way she was seated on the bed, on her knees, staring at him with a big, blue eyes. Softly, he asked, "Got so horny you couldn't wait for me to get up any longer?"

"More like got so hungry." He chest got a poke. "You've been asleep for hours, Paul."

"The life of a single dad. You don't even understand it."

"Oh, right, sure."

"It's true. I shower you with help constantly. Me though? All by myself?" He fell back into the bed, but that was sort of her fault as she pressed down on his chest before moving to straddle his lap. "Mmmm. You feel good here."

"Over you?"

"Mmmhmm." One of his hands rested on her hip while the other slipped beneath the t-shirt she'd slipped on at some point, when she'd finally gotten out of what she'd worn home from the airport. "My life's gone to shambles, without you here directing it."

"Well, it is what I'm best at."

Paul let his eyes slip shut again. "I'm so tired, Steph. Rora kept me up all night last night, crying, and then this morning I had to get up and clean up for your arrival-"

"By not doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom."

"I had other things to contend with, okay?"

"Uh-huh."

"Single father."

"Oh, put a sock in it." One of her hands was resting still on his chest, but the other came to gently lay across his face. "Before I do it for you."

"I always knew you had a Foley kink stashed away in there." He shut his eyes. "You little freak."

"Is that really," she mumbled while shifting her hips, just a bit, to get his attention, "what you wanna talk about right now?"

Paul's eyes opened again as he shook his head. "No, ma'am."

"Better not be."

It was kinda sorta the type of jokey conversation he wished they were having about an hour later when Steph asked the question he'd been dreading.

"Since we missed going out for dinner," she said as he admired the work she'd done of the dishes he'd been stockpiling (although she claimed the bathroom was still his duty to clean) and she waltzed over to the fridge to peek inside, "what do you have planned for us to eat?"

"Planned?" Paul had gone over to the kitchen table and taken a seat, mistakenly believing she had all that under control. "I dunno. I mean, I have my chicken breasts in there for me to eat. I'm on my diet, remember? For my injury? And you already fed the baby, so I figured this was all on you."

"Paul-"

"No. You cannot start in on me already." He slumped over on the table. "This isn't my fault. If someone hadn't overslept, we could have gone out to-"

"You're the one that overslept."

"You and your technicalities."

Steph let out that low, guttural growl that Paul never realized he was missing until it sprung its head. Grinning to himself, he said, "I love you, baby. I-"

"Oh, shut up." Steph went to go search the pantry for what canned vegetables they had to go along with his stupid chicken breasts. "You always do this. You don't plan for things. Not anything that doesn't directly affect you. You can get your entire damn diet and workout regimen completely scoped out and down to a T, but forbid you have to think about me for once."

"Hey, I give you things to do," he pointed out. "A life. Something to worry about. I bet you were miserable without me overseas with you. Were you not?"

"That's not what we're talking about, Paul."

"Mmmm." Folding his arms up around his head as he still rested against the table, he said, "Wake me for dinner, huh, babe?"

"Oh, no, Paul." She came over to swat at his head and point. "I cleaned your damn dishes, but that bathroom still needs to be-"

"Tonight though? I-"

" _Tonight_."

Alrighty then. That made his before dinner activity list rather easy to figure out.

Steph was still a bit peeved at him too, as they sat down together, at the kitchen table, to eat their meal. She was stabbing at her chicken quite viciously and he figured he should just be lucky it was giving her some stress relief.

"Hey, Steph-"

"Don't talk to me."

As if that would deter him.

"I figured now would be a good time to tell you," he kept going as she only glared across the table at him, "that I've found a new passion in life. And after my injury… Time is so precious, you know?"

"What are you-"

"I want to be there for you and Rora and the next baby and the...dog too, I guess, but mostly just the two of you. Three of you, when the next one gets here. Or gets created, I suppose, would be a more-"

"Paul, would you just-"

"I want to buy a farm."

Steph only stared. He wasn't finished yet though.

"And I want to build it into this great farm, this magnificent one, one that your father will get completely and utterly jealous of. I want goats and chickens and cows and I want a straw hat and I need to find some overalls in my size."

Still, she only stared. And still, he wasn't done.

"And, like I said, your dad'll be completely jealous. Super jealous. More people will be interested in Paul Levesque's farming techniques than old Vince's stupid, fake wrestling shenanigans. They'll be wowed by my commitment to cleaning up animal feces and milking cows. And Vince'll just get more and more infuriated until, one day, he's going to come to me, right? And he's going to ask how much I'm willing to sell him the farm for. And I'll think about it for a good week before telling him this outrageous price. But ol' Vince, he'll just pay for it. Because he's a lunatic. And then you know what I can go around telling people?"

Silence.

He cleared his throat.

"That Vince McMahon bought the farm!"

Steph took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Paul only sat there, awaiting a big reaction, but none came.

Then, slowly, she said, "All that lead in for that? A silly pun?"

"It's not a pun, babe. Or a play on words. It's a play on an idiom."

"Right. A pun."

"No. It-"

"I'm still mad at you."

"Good. I'm mad at you too now for not laughing at my joke."

"Your joke was about my father dying."

"Steph, the man's, like, ancient! What better joke is there to make than about him dying?"

"It was a dumb joke."

They went back to eating. For a little bit, anyways.

"Hey, Steph-"

"Paul, no, I don't-"

"You know, I've been thinking a lot about-"

"No. No more."

"I have to just tell you-"

"I'm not mad at you anymore. Please. Just shut up."

He stared across the table at her. "You sure sound mad."

"I'm not."

"Because, if you're mad, I have this great story to tell-"

"No. I'm not."

"It's about llamas."

"Paul-"

"And your dad."

"Dying?"

"Not explicitly, but-"

"You're impossible."

But it had worked then as, even though she was trying to hard to glare at him, he could see that slight smile tugging at her lips.

"It was a funny story." He looked back down at his plate. "I spent all that time thinking it up-"

"Fine." Steph managed a groan. "Tell it then."

"Nope."

"What? Paul-"

"I'm not going to waste my time."

"Yes. Tell it. What-"

"Na-ah. You're not worthy."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Paul-"

"No. Just eat your dinner."

"You're not-"

"You had your shot and you blew it." He gave her a serious look then. "You will now never know what llamas, your dad, and me becoming an oil man down in Texas all have to do with one another. You only have yourself to blame, Steph. Only yourself."

And she couldn't help it. She tried hard to fight it. Even reached for her glass of water in hopes that distracting herself by taking a sip would stop what was happening, but it didn't. Nothing could.

"See?" Paul grinned as his wife dissolved into giggles. "I knew I could get you to-"

"I'm still," she gasped between those deep giggles she got nearly constantly when she was around the man, even years out, "mad at you."

"I don't mind." He lifted his own glass of water and swung it towards her, as if in a jeering toast. "As long as you're happy."

"You're so stupid," she accused, but it was through those giggles as she tried very hard to compose herself. Still, the noise was loud enough to awaken her faithful mutt from where he was sleeping in the living room, resulting in some concerned barks from the mastiff which, of course, awoke poor Aurora.

But as Paul stood to go contend with her, Steph got to her feet first, using a napkin as she did so to wipe at her mouth.

"No," she told him as he only watched her walk off. "Let me. Please."

It didn't take long for her to get the baby settled again, it seemed, and when she returned, Steph didn't reclaim her place at the table. Rather, she stood behind him, arms wrapped around his neck as she hugged him from behind.

"Are you almost finished eating?" she asked as he reached up with his own hand to pat the ones she had dangling from his neck. "Because I think that the bathroom might still have a few things we could go over in there?"

"Is that right?"

"Mmmhmm."

"Well, I took out the trash and cleaned up the sink so-"

"I feel like the stain might have been in the shower and you might need to help me come look at it because I'm not sure if I can, um...rub it out all on my own and-"

"Shit, Steph, you are so lucky you have me. You have to be the worst at euphemisms ever. Seriously. You-"

"Oh, shut up, Paul." His head got a shove as her arms left from around his neck. "As if you're so good at talking around things."

"Need I remind you of the wonder that was the greatest insult of all time ever in the history of your dad's company? Eh? Grand Canyon?"

"A line that was fed to you, you mean, by our great creative writing team?"

"Fed to me." He practically spit. "That was all me."

"Oh, whatever." His head got another shove. "Just hurry up, huh? And do the dishes, please. Then come join me in the bathroom."

"Dishes?" Paul frowned as she headed off without another word. He saw her go into the living room first, to spend some time with her pooch, and bleh, she really was expecting him to take time out and get the dishes all washed again.

Which he did, of course, because Steph was home and that meant that he actually did all the chores in the house rather than avoiding most of them until they absolutely had to be taken care of.

But it was worth it, just to have her back and snuggled up to him that night when they went to bed, as well as there to willingly tend to poor Rora when she required her nightly attention.

That rubbing out wasn't too bad either…

"Don't leave me for three weeks again," he told Steph at one point that night after she'd returned from taking the dog, who had come to their bedroom door whining, out to the bathroom. "You handle these things so much better than me. You're right, I'm pathetic without you. Completely and utterly."

"Oh, I know." She snuggled right back up to him too, feeling far more comfortable there than she had in those hotel rooms during the overseas venues she'd just returned from. "And hey, what did a llama, my dad, and oil have to all do with one another?"

Beyond tired, Paul only snuggled her up real close, fighting through exhaustion as he began his tale.

"Well, as you know, llamas are way cooler than lame wrestling promos..."

* * *

 **This was another request that a guest sent me for a time when Steph or Paul returned from a road trip after a few weeks. I also got a request for me to do their proposal, which isn't coming to me as easily, so I'll probably post some other stuff before it's finished, but I'm definitely working on it.**


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